All articles & reviews tagged with ashers-bakery

News

March 2019

The owners of Ashers bakery in Northern Ireland say they won’t seek to recover legal costs from those who pursued them in the courts. The bakery’s backers, The Christian Institute, said Ashers do not wish to set a precedent which may damage other religious liberty cases in the future. And the Institute also says that by not seeking costs, Ashers are being consistent with arguments made at earlier stages of their legal case. The case centred on whether the Christian owners of the bakery could be forced to provide a cake with the slogan ‘support gay marriage’. When the case first went to trial, the...

Ashers bakery will not seek costs over ‘gay cake’ case

Article

March 2019

The McArthur family — owners of Ashers bakery in Northern Ireland — have made a humble, wise and selfless decision in not seeking to recover costs of their legal defence from their opponents. No doubt there will be those who wanted to give a bloody nose to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, to make them pay for hounding the McArthurs through the courts. Perhaps a hefty legal bill would have made the Commission think twice before doing something like this again. But throughout the lengthy legal struggle the McArthurs have acted with grace and dignity. They have never expressed any hatred or hostility towards...

Ashers have made a humble, wise and selfless decision

By Mike Judge

Article

November 2018

As we mark 100 years this month since the end of the Great War, it would utterly shock some of those men who gave their lives that we are living in a nation where we are fighting a battle against compelled speech. Yes, we rejoice that Ashers Bakery won their case at the Supreme Court last month, but it should never have got this far. It is blindingly obvious to anyone who cares to look at the case, this was never a matter of discrimination against the customer Mr Lee. He had been served before in Ashers Bakery, and no doubt he will be welcome...

Victory against compelled speech, but it should never have got this far

News

November 2018

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a Christian bakery in Northern Ireland did not break discrimination laws when it refused to bake a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage. The result is a major boost for freedom of speech. However, it does not overturn previous cases against Christian hotel owners or marriage registrars. Handing down their ruling on 10 October, the five judges were unanimous in their judgment. The judges said that equality law does not compel people to say something with which they profoundly disagree. President of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale, said the Ashers bakery did not discriminate against the customer,...